Would you turn with me to the second letter of the Apostle Peter, to the passage that gave us the theme for this time: 2 Peter 3. I am going to read from verse 8.
But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
But according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in His sight.
Then I would like to read in the Ephesian letter, chapter 6, verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, or stratagems, of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
And finally, in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 13, from verse 32.
But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is.
It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch.
Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
We have a word of prayer.
Beloved Lord, we thank You that we are found here in Your presence this evening, and we thank You that You have made provision for us in every need that we have. We thank You for the anointing of power and grace which You have made available to us through the finished work of our Lord Jesus.
And into that anointing we stand by faith, for the speaking of Your Word, for the translating of Your Word, and for the hearing of Your Word. We pray that somehow You will get Your Word into our hearts.
Lord, we can be lost in charts and outlines, and confused by a thousand and one things about the coming of the Lord. But the one thing that You have said again and again and again is, “Take heed.” Lord, help us to take heed.
We are living in days of great crisis and danger. Lord, speak to us this evening. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, the theme of this conference, as you all well know, is waiting for and hastening the coming of the Lord. My responsibility tonight and tomorrow night is the battle over the Lord’s coming.
I think all of us, brothers, must feel that we need at least three or four sessions to cover these aspects of the Lord’s coming. Certainly, I do not know how to pack into two nights the battle over the Lord’s coming.
Tonight I will talk about the testimony of Jesus and the battle that rages over that matter. Tomorrow I will speak about Israel and the battle that rages over the survival and salvation of the house of Israel.
So I will not say any more, but get into the matter straight away. The first thing I want to say is this: I want to underline the fact that Satan has an undying and continuous hatred for God, for the Lord Jesus, for the Godhead.
I do not know quite how it all began, but the Word of God calls it the mystery of lawlessness. Whilst it applies to us human beings, it actually goes right to the very beginning, when something happened in the heart of Lucifer. He fell, and with him he took one-third of the angels of God.
I am not going to stay at that point, only to say that from that moment pride was found in Lucifer. The battle began. It has never ceased through the ages of time.
It was Satan who captured Adam and Eve in the garden. It is very interesting—I am sure you ladies will not lynch me for saying this—that he went to Eve first. He apparently had watched Adam and Eve and decided that the only way to get Adam and Eve was first somehow to get Eve. And so the human story that we know began.
It does not matter where we look in the Word of God: the undying and continuous aim of Satan is seen.
We have four great kingdoms mentioned, all of which were founded in bloodshed: the Babylonian, the Persian, the Hellenic or Greek, and the Roman.
It is very interesting that in our Hebrew, both Old and New Testament, the word Babylon does not appear. We use the word Babel. In other words, right from the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 11, we have a battle of mankind—a huge battle that Satan is pursuing.
Do you remember the story of Babel? Do you remember that they built a tower up to heaven, or tried to? We do not really know what it was. We tend to think of them all in prehistoric days as somehow hairy individuals who looked rather like apes and went round with cudgels. But, in fact, they were incredibly more intelligent than twenty-first-century men.
For one thing, they lived a good deal longer—not that that is anything to go by, but they did live a good deal longer. I have often wondered what they were doing in Babel when they built a tower which they said should reach to heaven.
Was it the first skyscraper? “Oh no,” you say, “that was in America, that was in the United States. They could not have been as clever as that.” Well, I am not so sure about that.
What were they trying to do? Was it the first space programme? “Oh,” you say, “do not be ridiculous. The Russians and the States have had their space programmes, and it is because we are clever people. They were nincompoops in those days. They had no understanding of these things. They could not possibly have got a spacecraft off the ground anyway. They could not even form one.”
We do not know. All we know is one simple thing: they said, “We will make a name for ourselves.” And Satan put it into their heart to call it Bab-il, the gate of God.
In other words, it was the gateway into a golden millennium: fraternity, equality, prosperity. So important was what they were doing that God said, “If I do not stop them, nothing will be withheld from them.”
In other words, if the Lord had not brought this confusion of languages which we have today, with the translation, we would have cloned sheep and dogs thousands of years ago, and possibly men and women. We would have got a spacecraft to the moon, to Mars, and beyond. But God put a divine brake on Babel.
It is interesting that when Nebuchadnezzar had his great dream in Daniel 2, he saw history as a human being—a statue. Interestingly, it was the statue of a man, but it was a statue: a monolith, a colossus. He could not walk, he could not think, he could not do anything. It was a great idol.
And it is very interesting that when Daniel saw the same four great empires, he saw them not as a human being, not as a monolith or a colossus, but as four wild beasts.
Now, a wild beast can be gentle and loving and sweet and kind, but at any single moment a wild beast can turn on you and kill you.
When God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar, it was as a human being without a heart. But when He spoke to Daniel, He revealed the real nature of those four great empires. I am not going to stay with the matter, but all I want to say is that this was part of the undying and continuous hatred of Satan for God, for the living God.
It is interesting that when you come to Revelation 13, you find that God revealed to John that there would arise a huge empire in the last days, at the very end of time. That great empire would have features of Babylon, Persia, Hellenism, and Romanism.
And it is very, very interesting that we are living in the days, in my estimation, when this is happening. This huge battle that we are in—is any child of God, born of the Spirit, not aware of a battle? Even the youngest among us, saved only for days, must be aware that you are born into warfare. You are born into battle.
I have said for—I do not know how many years, ten years at least—that the United States was heading for judgment, and that the only way this final great empire could come would be when judgment fell upon the United States.
I saw it rather like the Titanic, sailing unbeknown into an iceberg: all lights on, dancing, bands playing, food being served—everything. They had no idea that what the captain had said about the Titanic, “Even God could not sink it,” would prove false. It was heading into an iceberg and would sink within minutes.
I do not think that I have to say this evening that that judgment has begun.
It is interesting that in Revelation 12 it speaks of the man-child being caught up to heaven, and war on earth—Satan cast out of heaven onto the earth, with very little time left to him.
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
It seems to me—excuse my English—but it seems to me that we are in the penultimate attempt of Satan to frustrate God’s eternal purpose. The final attempt will be at the end of the millennium, when Satan makes one last great effort to unseat the Lord Jesus, to destroy the people of God, and to frustrate God’s eternal purpose.
Someone may well ask me, “Is Satan so dumb that he cannot see that everything he does God overcomes? Can he not see that he is losing?”
Have you ever met a proud person? I mean, have you ever met a really proud person? Just arrogance seeps out of every pore of their body. Have you ever met such a person? You will find them stubborn. You will find them self-willed, and you will find them often deluded.
They believe, against all the evidence and against all the facts, that they can win. Satan is the very amazing example of pride.
If you read Isaiah 14, we have an extraordinary picture of Satan. Many of you will know it. Here it is; I will read just these few verses, verses 12 and 13.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
And I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.
We are in this great battle. Praise the Lord: at some point, I do not know when, we shall be caught up—if we are ready.
How far we have to go in this battle, this final battle, this penultimate battle, I do not know. But all I know is that the Word of God describes it as something fierce, terrible, such as has never happened before in the long and bloody history of mankind.
Now, I would like to stop for a moment. Perhaps you plead, “Stop for a moment,” because I do not want to bring a pall of death upon you all, depress you, or demoralise you.
When you read that marvellous vision of John contained in Revelation 4 and 5, it is something incredible. He sees the throne, and round the throne twenty-four elders on thrones, and the four living creatures—the living ones. He says the throne is like an emerald.
Brother Stephen has already described this, so I will not go further, except to say that this Lion, which is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, is not an antique title. It is not just looking back. It is not just gathering up the Old Testament. It has something to do with the future.
John could have seen the little Lamb standing in the throne, as slaughtered from the beginning. But instead, when the elder said to him, “Behold, the Lion,” it was the Lion. He introduced the King as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.
John looked. He knew this had to be Jesus. He looked, and instead he saw not a lion; he saw a little Lamb, as slaughtered, standing in the throne.
And then, as he watched, he saw the whole great host bow and worship, and heard that amazing song about the Lamb, the little Lamb:
With Thy blood Thou hast purchased men and women of every tribe and tongue and nation and people, and made them to be a kingdom and priests unto our God; and they shall reign for ever.
Stephen has already spoken about this, so I will not go any further. All I am going to say is this: when did the little Lamb stand in the throne? I think it was at the Ascension. He went up beyond the clouds, as we heard this morning, to the throne.
The most quoted Messianic Psalm in the Old Testament is Psalm 110:
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.
Let the rod, the sceptre, of Thy strength go forth from Zion:
Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.
This means that Jesus has won. It does not matter how great the battle is. It does not matter if the world is filled with demons. It does not matter if there is an antichrist who is all-powerful, and his government seems all-powerful. The fact of the matter is that Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
He is not fighting. He is not struggling. If I may be so irreverent as to say it, He has not any neurosis. He is not saying to Himself, “Can they? Will they?” He is seated. Why? Because the Father has said, “I will make Your enemies the footstool of Your feet.”
That means that all the work which He has completed and finished, which has yet to be established, and all the victory in time that is within that finished work, is yet to be fulfilled. He is still seated at the right hand of God.
No wonder, dear child of God, that those who overcame, overcame by the blood of the Lamb. That is the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
In that completed work is every single thing needed to turn you from a sinner into a saint, to turn you from some twisted human being into a child of God with the likeness of the Lord Jesus. It is in the finished work.
The Holy Spirit never comes on any other basis. You can weep yourself for hundreds of years, if you could live so long, and you would not obtain the Holy Spirit. Your zeal, your devotion, your good works—those will never obtain the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to us on the basis of the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
In that full salvation, in that completed work, is everything you and I need to overcome the world, sin, and the devil. Oh, for eyes to see it! Oh, that the Spirit of God would open the eyes of our hearts to see what has happened.
Jesus has won. The evidence that it is a finished work is that He is seated at the right hand of God, and the Father has said, “Leave it to Me.” May I put it so colloquially? “Leave it to Me. I will see that all the fruits of Your finished work are fulfilled.”
Let it sink in, or the enemy will get you. He will accuse you of this. He will accuse you of that. He will bring up this. He will bring up that—unless you learn how to hold and wield the shield of faith, unless you understand what it is to stand.
Dear, dear folks, so many Christians have no idea about this wrestling. They have a tennis match. It is all very polite. You are nicely clothed in white shorts, and you whack it, and you send the ball over the net. It comes back, and someone falls out, and you know the rest of it.
For most Christians, their confrontation with the powers of darkness is really like a tennis match: very, very pleasant, very correct, very nice, not the least bit vulgar.
There is nothing more vulgar than wrestling. For any of you young people who watch SmackDown, you know exactly what I am talking about. There is something so thunderous about it: half-naked men throwing one another out of the ring, up and down, jumping on one another, whole twelve or thirteen stone of flesh coming down on somebody else’s twelve or thirteen stone of flesh, twisting their arm up their back, their leg up their back, throwing them out of the ring.
Is it not interesting that the Apostle Paul used not some pleasant sport that would be so decent, but said, “We wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenly places”?
Most of us have never wrestled with principalities and powers and world-rulers of this darkness. We have wrestled with hosts of wicked spirits. The fact of the matter is, he is talking about this huge battle that we are in.
And that leads me to the heart of the matter. If Jesus is on the throne, and if the Father is going to make His enemies His footstool, and if the Father has said to Him, “Let the rod of Your strength go out of Zion,” then whether it is the church or whether it is Israel, the victory is assured.
It leads me to say something more. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, which means the finished work of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the complete, full work that He has done. Then it says, “By the word of their testimony.”
It is interesting that when you say with your lips, “I am saved by the grace of God,” clarity comes into you. When you say with your lips, “Jesus is Lord,” clarity comes into you.
Have you ever noticed that when we are all using things like, “Maybe,” “Perhaps,” “Will You do this?” “Will You do that?” there can be a great battle? But the moment you have the word of your testimony—the confession of your mouth, the expression of your heart—something happens.
Do you notice a third thing? It is very interesting how it is put: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” The third thing is put differently: “And they loved not their lives even unto death.”
That is the heart of the matter. It is when we lay down our self-life that we overcome.
There can be no overcoming of Satan when you have a thriving self-life, when you have your own agendas, when somehow or other you have got your own will. Then there can be no overcoming.
It is the readiness to deny yourself, to take up your cross and follow Him, that spells victory. When you are prepared, for His sake in the Gospels, to lay down your self-life—the word life in our English version is psuche in Greek, your soul-life, your self-life—that is when you overcome.
Let me take this matter one step further. You have heard—we have all heard—so much about the testimony of Jesus, and that is marvellous, because the heart of this matter is the testimony of Jesus.
Dana said to us, “I find it very interesting that the Gospel of John is full of that Greek word translated witness, testify, testimony, and so on.” It meant a lot to John.
What is the testimony of Jesus? Let me add my little piece to this. It is this:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.
This word translated Word in Greek is logos. It means something articulate—in American English, verbalised. Jesus is the unknown heart and mind of God articulated. It is the unknown being of God expressed. That is the testimony of Jesus.
Let us go one further. This Gospel is built on the great “I am” declarations:
I am the bread of life.
I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the door.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the true vine.
Before Abraham was, I am.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I cannot get away from the fact that John saw the unmentionable name of God—“I am that I am”—and linked it to everything that you and I need in salvation.
And even more wonderful is this word:
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
Apart from Me ye can do nothing.
Dana spoke about Josephus, about the great temple of Herod—how beautiful it was, how magnificent it was. Brother Christian spoke about it this morning as one of the greatest temples in the Roman Empire.
Josephus tells us that there was a huge vine of gold filigree that went up the side of the porch and covered the ceiling. He called it one of the great wonders of the world.
Jesus said, “I am the true vine.” How can He be the covenant people of God? How can He be the temple? How could He say, “I am”?
Listen: this is the testimony of Jesus. If you are born of God, you are in Christ, and Christ is in you. That is the church—nothing else. You are the church only in Christ, and when Christ is in you, that is the testimony of Jesus.
It is not only the articulation of the mind and heart of God. It is also the fact that He is the true vine. He is the people of God. When we are joined to Him, when we are born of God, the Father positions us in Christ, and in Christ everything is found. When we are in Christ, Christ is enough.
The enemy hates the testimony of Jesus. He wants to keep people in darkness, in blindness, in disobedience, fettered in chains, in bondage.
The amazing thing is that the testimony of Jesus, wherever He came, brought freedom, salvation, healing, and deliverance. We have heard it from Brother Stephen. It is the testimony of Jesus.
What happened on the day of Pentecost? Oh, someone says, “The Holy Spirit was poured out. They spoke in tongues and prophesied.” Yes, you are absolutely right. The Holy Spirit was poured out. They did speak in tongues. They did prophesy. Many other gifts were manifest as well. There is no doubt about it.
Shall I tell you what happened? It was the testimony of Jesus.
For the first time in the long and terrible history of mankind, Someone at the right hand of God was joined to a body. One hundred and twenty unknown, for the most part, people were joined by the Holy Spirit to a Head in heaven.
Within hours they became three thousand one hundred and twenty. Within weeks they grew to five thousand. Within a few more weeks and months they grew to eight thousand. It was the most extraordinary thing the world has ever seen.
It came on the Jewish feast of Shavuot, when we remember the Word of God which was given to Moses. The Holy Spirit came to write that Word on our hearts. He came not to visit us, not to use us; He came to dwell in us.
It is the testimony of Jesus. This is what Satan hates.
Why do you think he has followed this strategy of Babel, of Persia, of Hellenism with its humanism, and Romanism with its glorious communications and its so-called rule of law? What do you really think? Why do you think Satan went in for it?
In the old covenant, it was God’s people. He tried to liquidate them. He tried to blind them. He tried to fetter them. He tried to divorce them from God. Again and again, the whole story is the battle over Israel.
When you come to the New Testament, it is the church. Now the battle is over the church. Oh, the battle has waged backwards and forwards.
Stephen mentioned the words of the Lord Jesus:
Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I prefer that rendering of the King James to “Hades”—the gates of hell—because it is the whole idea of the government of death, the power of death, hell alike. It puts over to us what it is all about.
Thank God Jesus is the Builder of the church. Thank God that He is the Custodian of the testimony. Thank God that the Holy Spirit has come to watch over this whole matter through the thousands of years of church history.
We have seen it again and again in the Bogomils, in the Paulicians, in the Donatists, in the Montanists, in the Albigenses, in the Priscillianists, in the Puritans, and in the Covenanters.
Again and again, when everything has died, when it has become institutionalised, denominationalised, systematised, and died—when it has become religion—then the Head of the church, by the Holy Spirit, has initiated a new movement.
Think. We have already had mentioned to us this morning the Moravians. Was there any more remarkable group? Or the early Wesleyans—we call them the Methodists. In their heyday, they were called enthusiasts.
The brethren. The Pentecostals. The Charismatics. It is right up to date. It is Jesus: “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Now, I have to watch myself on time. I get carried away in this kind of subject.
This testimony of Jesus is something to do with the bride making herself ready. Is it not interesting that Babel comes back from Revelation 13 onwards? Babylon—magnificent music, architecture, literature, merchandise, big business, everything you and I are used to.
And at the end of it, the angels—may I put it somewhat irreverently again—are hanging over the banisters of heaven, shouting at the top of their voice:
Hallelujah; for the Lord God, the Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be glad, for the bride hath made herself ready.
The wife of the Messiah, Jesus, has made herself ready. What a battle.
Well, when I look at the churches, there is no need for me to say anything, because Dana said it all. But when you look at the churches now, it is exactly like Herod’s temple: no glory, but a lot of beauty, a lot of organisation.
It is amazing to me that you can have wall-to-wall carpeting, ministers of music, ministers of youth, ministers for old people, ministers for the very young, and I do not know what else—and this church never knew that judgment was coming to the United States.
It is Laodicea.
The Head of the church, the Saviour of the body, is outside knocking on the door. I have called it the most plaintive word that Jesus ever spoke:
If any man hear My voice.
This church of born-again believers had everything: the Lord’s table, the Bible study, the prayer meeting, probably evangelistic outreach. They had it all. The elders, the deacons—yet they never knew that Jesus, about whom they were singing and of whom they were studying, was not with them. He was outside.
He does not say, “If any of you,” plural, “will hear My voice.” He says, “If any man hear My voice.” That was His estimate of that church.
They did not hear the voice of the Master. And He reckoned that it would only be perhaps one here and one there: “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
This great battle we are in has this testimony of Jesus at the heart of it. Satan knows that the moment the bride makes herself ready, the end will come.
That leads me to say the last thing. No, it will take me a little time, but still, this evening: how can we hasten the coming of the Lord? That is a good question.
I have to explain myself on this. The Greek word is undoubtedly hastening, but my American Standard Version found it very difficult to put hastening in, so it says earnestly desiring. I do not know how you get that out of the Greek word, but somehow they felt justified in doing that.
I notice that all the modern versions, including the New American Standard Bible and all the others, put hastening. But how can you hasten?
Listen, dear child of God: Jesus came not early and not late when He was born and placed in a manger in Bethlehem. Jesus came into the garden of Gethsemane not early and not late. It was an appointed time. It was Passover.
He died at nine o’clock on part of a day. It was an appointed time. He rose from the dead on the third day in Passover week, the firstfruits being waved. Shavuot, forty-nine days later, the Holy Spirit came at the appointed time.
Now we have this by Peter: “hastening.” If everything else has been fixed and appointed, would not the Lord’s coming be fixed and appointed?
Here we have an amazing word. You all know it:
Of that day and hour knoweth no one, neither the angels, nor the Son, but the Father.
Why did the Lord Jesus say that? Why is it only the Father who can say, “Let the whole thing roll”?
It came to me in a flash of light only a few days ago. I am by nature a Calvinist. I know that shocks lots of people, but I believe that everything is fixed; everything is sovereign. I do not believe God is willy-nilly laid back, scratching His head and thinking, “Well, maybe I will do it. Maybe.” No, no, no.
But in a flash it came to me: the city of God, the capital city of that great kingdom coming, the bride, the wife of the Lamb, is produced out of gold, precious stone, and pearl. We heard about the old standard. There is no other material. They are produced out of only three materials: gold, precious stone, and pearl.
What is the Holy Spirit to do if the material is not coming in to finish the work? The only thing the Lord can do is delay the return. Do you understand what I am trying to say?
I am really simply saying this: thank God for all the gold and precious stone and pearl that has come up from every move of the Holy Spirit in the history of the church.
If you take the first generation, you have gold, precious stone, and pearl. The same things came alive in each first generation of the Holy Spirit’s moving through church history. Every time the Head, the Lord Jesus, has taken the initiative, there has been a great move of the Spirit of God.
There has been gold, precious stone, and pearl. None of it is lost. Every bit of it is stored in heaven. It is part of the city, the New Jerusalem. It is part of the bride.
Now, dear friend, think for a moment. Think. If that is true, then to complete the city there has to be gold, precious stone, and pearl from our generation.
If the bride is to make herself ready, there has to be this gold, this precious stone, this pearl.
The gold speaks of the nature of the Lord Jesus. The precious stone speaks of the beauties and excellencies of the Lord Jesus. The pearl is given to very few people. It is inexplicable suffering that produces a pearl.
Listen to the words of the Lord. How loving the Lord is. How gracious the Lord is. He does not just trash the church at Laodicea.
He says, “Your estimate of yourself is entirely wrong. You are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked.”
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined in the fire.
How can we buy gold? It is the nature of Jesus. He is given to us as God’s unspeakable gift. The only way you buy that gold is through experience.
That is why we have tribulations. That is why we have difficult circumstances. That is why sometimes we have relationships that are incredibly difficult. The Lord is working something.
He says, “And white garments, that you may be clothed, and that your nakedness may not appear.” So through experience we have to learn how to hide in the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
“And eye salve, to anoint your eyes, that you may see.”
Have you ever been in a situation where you are so confused and hopeless that you do not know where to turn? And then the Lord has spoken. I could give many instances—not for myself, but for many others—when they have been at a dead end and have not known where to turn.
The Lord has given them eyes. You know, the situation does not change, but you change. The circumstances may remain, but you are a different person. You are an overcomer. The Overcomer in you is overcoming.
Dear child of God, this battle is going to get worse and worse. I do not have any doubt about it myself. Now, I may be wrong, and if I am, I am very happy that I am wrong, and that all that we are going through at present is just a hiccup and we will return to the never-never world that we were in a year or two ago.
I do not think so. I think you have a president who is going to lead you into change after change after change. I think that the world is going to follow in change after change.
I believe that the European Union—twenty-seven countries of over four hundred and sixty million people—is bound to become one of the greatest powers in the earth. I will not say more about that. The battle is over the testimony.
Now I close. Some weeks ago, some months ago, I was asked to speak in what is often called the Evangelical Cathedral in the Midlands and north of England. It was founded by Dr. F. B. Meyer: Melbourne Hall in Leicester.
Leicester is now a Muslim city. There are mosques everywhere. The call to prayer from the mosques is heard all over that great city of Leicester.
I spoke, and at the end the leader, the pastor, who had been there for thirty-four years, said, “Dear brother, you stood in the pulpit where C. T. Studd spoke before he went to China, and then India, and then Africa.”
He said Dr. F. B. Meyer was there on that occasion, leading that company of believers. In the vestry afterwards, he said to C. T. Studd—he was very impressed by this young man, this Cambridge graduate, who was leaving everything, fame, had given away a fortune in money, and was absolutely devoted to the Lord Jesus—“Tell me, what is the secret of your life and your ministry?”
And C. T. Studd thought for a moment. Then he said, “I have surrendered my will to God.”
That was the key to a life which turned the Congo upside down.
When he was dying, Norman Grubb said to me—it was his father-in-law—he said that as he was dying, C. T. Studd said, “I have many weaknesses, many failings. I have upset believers everywhere, and my co-workers. But there is one thing that I can say: of all that the Lord has told me to do, I have done willingly.”
That, to me, is an overcomer: to be able to do the will of God.
Remember the words of the Apostle Paul:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
You young person, you may have an agenda for your life. You older person, you may be somewhat depressed or demoralised. Maybe you have got the middle-age spread—that sort of a curse, spiritually—lukewarm now.
The key is not to have the Lord as your supporter, your blesser, the cleaner-up of your messes. It is to surrender your will to God.
If you are prepared, even in this place, just to bow your head and heart and say, “Lord, here I am. You know me. I do not try to be a façade of anything else. Will You please take me as I am? I surrender my will to You,” I believe the Lord will take you at your word.
There is no other way.
We want the Lord to come. Why is He waiting? Why is it that all through these years He still waits for that day when the Father will say, “Let us get going”?
Is gold being produced in your life? Is precious stone being formed? Only the Lord can challenge you and me.
But we are in a time of great crisis and danger. It is wonderful that the coming of the Lord is nearer than when we first believed. But we need Him.
We do not know what lies ahead of us. Some people want to be taken just to escape. They want to escape the things that will come upon the face of the earth. That does not seem to me to be a valid reason.
You and I need to make the Lord not only Saviour, but Lord. Then we will be safe. We will be ready for the coming of the Lord.
Thank you.